Windsor's Korbyn Ukasick puts up a shot over Poudre's Reagan Travis during the championship game of the Poudre Invitational on Friday Poudre won the game 57-27. / Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan

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To outsiders, it may appear the start of the Windsor girls basketball season has been a little up and down.

The Wizards have played in three tournaments, winning the first two games of each one, before falling in the final.

That’s of no concern to coach Gary Perko as his team enters winter break.

“I predicted 6-3 at the start of these tournaments, that’s right where we were last year,” Perko said. “We went 19-5 (the rest of the season) to go to the state tournament. A new season starts now.”

Windsor (6-3) doesn’t play another game until a Jan. 5 matchup on the road against Frederick.

As Perko suggested, the early season has followed an expected formula. He has implemented a new offensive system to better utilize his weapons, including the dominant post presence of Brooke Pemberton.

His team is still learning that system, going through some struggles as they get used to it. That showed in the Wizards last game before winter break, a 57-27 loss to Poudre.

Poudre ran a hard press that confused and disrupted Windsor from the start. They got better as the game went on, but going down 21-4 after one quarter was far too big a hole to climb out of.

“You can’t get down 16-2 and expect to come back,” Perko said. “After we got down 16-2 we kind of played them even. You can’t get down 16-2 and turn the ball over like we did against that press.”

Through the first nine games of the year it is clear there is new emphasis on getting the ball to Pemberton. The sophomore is averaging 16 points per game and has had a school-record 34 points in a win.

Korbyn Ukasick is the second-leading scorer at nine points per game.

Sophomore Alyssa Manicone is running the point and averaging three assists per game.

The tricky part between now and early January is not losing any of the positive work that has been gained through the early portion of the season.

Windsor will practice all this week, the final week of classes. They will then be off before being allowed to practice Dec. 28-31.

“This week, they’re going to be running,” Perko said. “Then it will be good to have a week off and hopefully they’ll get into the rec center or something like that and shoot on their own.”